Gout Drug Shows Promise For Cirrhosis Victims

A drug long used for treatment of gout apparently also can extend the lives of people with cirrhosis of the liver, a 10-year study by researchers in Mexico has concluded.

The study, presented at a meeting of liver researchers in Chicago, may cause many physicians to begin immediately prescribing the drug, colchicine, to patients with cirrhosis, although researchers say more test results are needed.

An estimated 26,000 Americans die each year of cirrhosis, a condition in which progressive scarring eventually destroys the liver`s ability to function. About half of these people are alcoholics, and the others suffer from other disorders such as hepatitis.

The study of colchicine was conducted at the National Institute of Nutrition and the Polytechnic Institute in Mexico City and was presented at a meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease.

Among 100 patients in the study, 54 received colchicine and 46 were given a placebo. After five years of treatment, 65 percent of patients given placebos had died while only 26 percent of those getting the drug died. After 10 years, more than half of patients given colchicine were alive compared with only 9 percent of the others.

In general, few patients live more than 10 years after being diagnosed as having cirrhosis.

Colchicine is an anti-inflammatory drug that apparently slows or stops the progressive scarring of the liver in cirrhosis patients, researchers said. ``Because this drug has few side effects and little toxicity and because the doses used were very small, I would imagine that many clinicians may begin to prescribe it for patients with cirrhosis,`` said Dr. Andres Blei, an associate professor of medicine at Northwestern University. ``We really won`t have rigorous proof of its effectiveness until other studies confirm these findings.``

Several studies of colchicine in cirrhosis patients are underway, Blei said, so confirmation of its usefulness in liver patients should be available within a few years.

Dr. David Ganger, a liver specialist on the Northwestern faculty, said studies also are needed to determine what type of cirrhosis patient responds best to colchicine therapy.

``I would doubt that colchicine could do much where you have advanced disease,`` he said. ``In other cases where the disease is in an early stage, you might be able to stop any serious damage. These are questions that must be resolved.``